While most pregnant women take prenatal vitamins, there are some women who aren't pregnant who wonder whether they could benefit from the high-power vitamin and mineral pills. Depending upon whether or not you're trying to conceive, prenatal vitamins may or may not do you any good; in some cases, you're better off with a daily multivitamin.
Prenatal Vitamins
A prenatal vitamin contains many of the same vitamins and minerals found in a regular daily multivitamin, but also contains high levels of iron and folic acid. Most prenatal vitamins contain 27mg of iron--the amount recommended for pregnant women, as compared to the 18mg recommended for non-pregnant women, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby." Prenatals also contain 800 to 1,000mg of folic acid.
Iron and Folic Acid
The reasons for the increased quantities of iron and folic acid are that pregnant women have some special requirements, explain Drs. Roizen and Oz. They produce up to 50 percent more blood than a non-pregnant woman, and building red blood cells requires iron. Further, developing embryos use folic acid in producing the neural tube, which goes on to become the brain and spinal cord. If pregnant women have folic acid deficiencies, their babies can develop birth defects.
Trying to Conceive
If you're trying to conceive, it may be worthwhile to talk to your physician about starting prenatal vitamins, explains Dr. Miriam Stoppard in her book "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth." Starting on the vitamins will help ensure that you have plenty of iron and folic acid--in addition to other vitamins and minerals--in your system once you actually become pregnant, which can start your pregnancy off on the right foot.
Not Trying to Conceive
If you're neither pregnant nor trying to conceive, prenatal vitamins aren't likely to hurt you, explains Katherine Zeratsky on the website MayoClinic.com. As long as you're healthy, the high levels of iron in prenatal vitamins aren't likely to do you any harm. However, the vitamins aren't likely to do you much good either--at least, not above and beyond what a normal daily multivitamin would do--and they're quite expensive.
Vitamin Consideration
Regardless of whether you're trying to conceive, if you choose to use a prenatal vitamin, it's important to look for one that doesn't contain calcium. Your body can't absorb both calcium and iron together, and the high levels of iron in prenatal vitamins inhibit calcium absorption. Look for a separate calcium supplement--particularly if you're trying to conceive--and take it at a different time of day.
References
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
- "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth"; Miriam Stoppard, M.D.; 2008
- MayoClinic.com: Prenatal vitamins
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